SP2 Highlights

I was watching SportsCenter's the other day.  Thought..do I have a Top 10 sports highlights from my life?  I thought of five - good and the bad:

1.  Stockton Shoguns basketball - 6th grade - The other team was shooting the back end of their free throws - up by 2.  They miss.  I grab the rebound in the low block.  I run down the court.  I see my Dad on the sidelines yelling the count, "5,4,3."  I run past to shoot a running jumper at the buzzer.  Hits the back rim and goes down.  Buckets.  Grant Mizuno jumped on top of me.  Everybody swarmed me.  We lose in OT.

2.  Pittsburgh Pirates Little League - 7th grade - I'm pitching against one of my friends on the Mariners.  He's one of the best hitters in the league.  He comes up for his first at bat and I strike him out with a high fastball.  He comes up for his second at bat and smiles at me.  First pitch - strike.  Second pitch - he smashes it about 600 feet over the fence. Laser show.

3.  Stockton Soccer - 4th grade - Corner kick.  I remember this vividly.  My friend runs up to me and says, "Steve.  He's going to kick it to me.  I'm going to fake the shot and pass it over to you.  Then you score." Looking back at this now I find this hilarious.  We were the worst team in the history of soccer.  We scored a total of two goals in an entire season.  Like the kid is actually going to get the corner kick in?  More likely he's going to trip and fall trying to kick it in...anyway, he kicks the perfect corner kick.  My friend passes me the ball.  Perfect pass.  I kick my leg out.  Money.  Hits the back of the net.  Wait...no...that's my shoe that went into the goal.  And the ball went out of bounds. My mom always told me to double knot my shoes.  When I got to the sideline she said, "I told you so."  Whatever, I still got my orange slices and capri sun.

4.  Lincoln High School Cross Country - Senior Year - I missed the first three months of the season with a stress fracture.  Section meet consisted of Sacramento and San Joaquin counties.  Only two teams make the state meet.  I have the best race of my life and place 13th overall.  We go to state.

5.  Elementary School Recess - 7th Grade - Two of my friends and I played basketball 3 times per day the whole school year - rain or shine.  We called ourselves "Team Korea."  We played almost every game against "Team Europe."  We lost every single game for an entire year.  Do you comprehend how bad that is?  It's worse than my soccer team.  We finished with approximately 0 wins and 540 losses.  (180 instructional days * (1 recess + 1 lunch + 1 pe)).

07/14/2012 - MOOnlight Classic 10k (6.2 miles)

13th out of 1,089

A 5k/10k combined race is always confusing. It isn't always clear who is running the 5k and who is running the 10k so you don't know what pace people in your race are running.  The gun went off and like 30 people took off past me.

The whole race I was questioning whether I was running too slow.
















 

The race is at night which is unique

My parents came out!  They're both on their phones...those hipsters

Bronze medal in 25-29 yr old division

1,000

I made a bet with a close friend...1,000 dollars on who can run the most total miles in a week.  My week started on Thursday at midnight and I have exactly one week to run my heart out.

The best thing about this bet is that there is no communication during the week.  Therefore, you have to assume that the other person is out there everyday, giving it their all.

Once the bet results are finalized I will post on my total miles.

Now, I am off to run the Moonlight 10k Classic tonight in Davis!!!

04/22/2012 - Capitol City Classic 10k (6.2 miles)

Check out the "Chip Diff" statistic.  That means it took me a 1 minute 32 seconds to even cross the starting line - that's how far back I was from the line...look at everybody else in the top 15...what does this tell you?  No swag.


I'm always worried that I'm going to get in the way of the 5:00 and 5:30/mile runners.  But who usually ends up standing at the front?  Middle aged women running a race with their 12 year old kid and old men who walk the race.  Wtf.

When I win my race I hope that it's different.  I want to stand at the very front, look down at people on the starting line, and be confident that I'm going to "Usain Bolt" all of them.

I think that I am to running as Mike Miller is to basketball.  We both look like we can be good.  We both remember that we used to be good.  We look fit, we feel good.  We even have some accessory swag: Mike Miller sports his gnarly tribal tattoo; I rock multiple power balance bands.

But as Sebastian Telfair would say, "When the lights are on, it's time to perform."  (This actually sounds like it rhymes when you have a Brooklyn accent.  'Bassy also didn't go to college.)

I wonder if Mike has swag in shootaround.  I wonder if he tries to bully LeBron in the post during practice.  I swag out when I'm training at the track.  VROOM.  Whenever somebody tries to run faster than me I run faster.  VROOM.  Nobody passes me.  Who do they think they are?  That's MY track.

So if you're at the start of a race and you think, "Where is Steven?"  Look further back.  You'll probably catch him next to the sorority girls with matching t-shirts and the lady with the double wide stroller.

03/02/2012 - Interns vs Steven

Yes, I lost.  Shut up.

My senior was messing with the interns.  She challenged one to race me finishing some work.  This turned into me racing four interns.  This turned into a physical race.  This turned into lets do a relay.  This turned into a 1.25 mile steven 1.00 mile intern handicap.

This turned into a company event with 50+ onlookers.  I lost by about 5 seconds.  Unbelievable.  Should have trained.  Unbelievable.  The partners are talking about making "The Race" into an annual event.

03/11/2012 - The 408k (4.97 miles)

I started a running club at work and we ran our first race together this past weekend in San Jose.  The San Jose 408k sold out at 3,000 participants - a lot larger than I expected.

For the past couple months I've been working out 9 times per week, but it's a mixture of different cardio (not all running) and weight training.  I was not training specifically for this race, but now I kind of wish that I did.

I didn't get to the race late, but I also didn't get there early.  As a result I ended up starting towards the back and it was really hard to weave through all the slow people.  As a result, my first mile ended up being 7:40 which is a lot slower than I would have liked.  (My overall pace ended up being a 6:32/mile)

I think that my peak for a race this distance would probably be around 6:00/mile if I trained for it - I would have got 15th place.

Don't get me wrong - I still had a great time at the race, but situations like these make me wonder about potential.  I want to run twice per day for a month and see how well I can do in a race.  Could be a goal for the future!

Sidenote:  I played in a basketball game after the race in this league with my best friends.  The other team had a guy that was like 6'4, 350.  At one point I ran into him and it knocked the wind out of me.  I don't think he even noticed that I ran into him.  Sigh.

Sidenote 2:  My running club is all girls.  We have one other guy besides me.  I feel like all the people I work with are female.  The other day we went to lunch and it was me, 16 girls, and a gay guy.

July 19, 2010 - wow

01/15/2012 - Redding Marathon (26.2 miles)

First, I'd like to thank the many people that text messaged me words of encouragement in the days surrounding my first marathon.  It was really touching that so many of you remembered and cared.  I'd also like to give a very, very special thanks to my Dad for making the trip to Redding and always providing his support for my goals.

We left at 2:30 AM from Stockton to arrive in Redding for signups at 6:00 AM.  It 

was...cold.

I had no idea what to expect from this race.  The farthest I've EVER ran before was 13.1 miles.  So add 13.1 miles to the farthest you've ever ran and try to pace yourself for that distance...impossible.  I was even more worried that my knee pain would inhibit me from finishing the race.

The course was beautiful.  You start out by running across the Shasta Dam and you end at the Sundial bridge:

SUMMARY OF RACE

Mile 1 - Wow, the view is gorgeous.  My knee feels funny, but at least it doesn't hurt.

Mile 3 - I'm actually running a marathon!  This is so cool!

Mile 7 - Frost covers the paths.  Worried about slipping and hurting my knee.

Mile 9 - Relay leg #1 ends.  Relay leg #2 runners start passing marathon runners.  I'm pretty sure we were all thinking, "F you guys."

Mile 10 - Rolling hills begin.  Not tired at all, but knee getting sore.

Mile 14 - Are you kidding me?  4 miles of rolling hills?

Mile 16 - My GPS watch dies.  Starting to get tired.

Mile 18 - Loop done?  Oh wait..there's a SECOND LOOP?  Ahhhh

Mile 20 - I can't lift my right leg more than 2 inches from the ground.  Knee too tight/Pain.

Mile 21 - Every 5 seconds I considered walking.  No, I can do it.

Mile 22 - Maybe I can't do it.

Mile 23 - Just a 5k left.

Mile 25 - Hardest mile of the entire course.  So tempted to walk.  Running so slowly.

Mile 26 - Adrenaline rush

Last .2 - Pushed it through the finish.  Victory...

The relay teams wore white numbers and the full marathon runners wore yellow numbers.  By the end of the race I had an extreme sense of pride in being a yellow numbered runner for one day of my life.  I know that I'll never be a regular marathon runner, but I will always remember this experience and look back on it with pride.

My goal was to run the whole way and finish in 4 hours.  I ended up finishing 80th out of 219 in a time of 3 hours, 59 minutes, and 20 seconds (9:09/mile).  Funnily enough, my half marathon goal last January was 2 hours and I finished in 1 hour, 59 minutes, 39 seconds...unreal.

It was a good weekend.  Congrats 49ers.

49er game with Grant

49er game with Sharon

Dinner with Carissa = bread = CARBS for the race!

Numbers

8 - Margin of victory for Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucus

33.84 - Miles that I ran last week

10 - Hours of vacation that I accrue per month

-21 - Difference in my peak weight from four years ago and now

5 - My favorite players' new number on the LA Clippers

10 - Days until I run my first full marathon